film diplomacy

A recent proposal of the Information and Broadcasting (I&B) Ministry to this effect received a big thumbs-up from Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Now the ministry has started planning the dedicated corpus — funded by the government and the film industry — to finance full-fledged publicity campaigns for India’s entries in the run-up to the Academy Awards. 

http://www.foxsearchlight.com/henamedmemalala/
September 23, 2015

The 2015 Milwaukee Film Festival is taking a trip to the other Great White North — Sweden. The Scandinavian cinema powerhouse will be the focus of the festival's fifth Passport program, the film festival announced Tuesday.

Call it serendipitous. Call it fortuitous. Call it whatever you like, but the meeting of Audrey Emerson and Anne Wells produced more than a friendship. It led to the production of a film, specifically “The Pamoja Project,” a 30-minute documentary profiling three women community leaders in Tanzania, East Africa.

Like Joyeux Noël (2005), The Last Samurai (2003), and The Pianist (2002), Tangerines is a war film about enemy soldiers who become friends after they are forced to interact with one another. The point is to highlight the various reasons why people fight, and then to show why these reasons are inadequate. [...] The film is a passionate plea for diplomacy and coexistence. Urushadze creates a cinematic world where enemy soldiers can lay down their weapons and have a conversation.

Filmmakers in Iran daring to overstep the mark can face censorship and harassment. Jafar Panahi and Mohammad Rasoulof have challenged restrictions via their movies, telling bitter-sweet stories from a troubled society.

The China-proposed “Belt and Road” initiative has moved the first concrete steps in Italy, whose authorities and experts see a range of win-win opportunities for both countries. 

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